If you've ever lost a card on set, you only ask the question once: which offload software actually verifies the copy? After that, you stop using Finder. The question becomes which of the three serious tools to use, because all three (Hedge, Silverstack, and ShotPut Pro) do the same critical thing. They differ on everything else.
Here is the side-by-side, the workflow each one actually fits, and the price of being wrong.
The Three at a Glance
| Hedge | Silverstack Lab | ShotPut Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checksum verification | xxHash, MD5, SHA, others | xxHash, MD5, SHA | xxHash, MD5, SHA |
| Multi-card parallel copy | Yes (this is its thing) | Yes | Yes |
| Production reporting | Basic | Industry-grade (PDF, CSV, MHL) | Solid (PDF, MHL) |
| Pricing (2026) | $99/yr or ~$399 lifetime | ~$24/mo subscription | $129 one-time |
| Best for | Solo shooters, indie ACs, speed | DITs, broadcast, doc shoots | US commercial standard |
| Multi-platform | Mac + Windows | Mac + Windows | Mac + Windows |
All three do the one thing that matters: they read every byte off the card, write it to one or more destinations, and verify with a cryptographic hash that what arrived matches what was on the card. Anything less is gambling.
The Core Feature: Verified Copy
Think of checksum verification like a script supervisor counting takes against the lined script at end of day. You're not just confirming the file exists, you're confirming it's the same file. Bit-for-bit identical.
A Finder copy doesn't do this. macOS will happily report "copy complete" while a corrupted byte slips through. SD card readers, USB-C cables, and bus-powered hubs all introduce occasional read errors that go undetected unless you actively check.
xxHash is the modern default because it's fast, often faster than the read speed of the card itself. MD5 is older but universally readable. SHA is overkill for most workflows but supported.
The verification step is what separates a real offload tool from a fancy file copier. All three vendors take this seriously. Pick on the other features.
Hedge: Speed, Minimalism, Solo-Friendly
Hedge bills itself on speed and simplicity. The interface is essentially: drag cards in, pick destinations, hit go. Multi-card parallel copy is the headline. On a fast workstation with three CFexpress cards, Hedge can offload all three simultaneously to two destinations each, and finish 10 to 15 percent faster than ShotPut on the same hardware.
Reports are clean but not exhaustive. You get a per-card MHL (Media Hash List) and a basic PDF summary. That's enough for most workflows.
Pricing changed in late 2025. Subscription is $99/year or you can buy a perpetual license at around $399 (one-time, with a year of updates included).
Best for: solo shooters offloading their own cards, second ACs on indie features, doc shooters who care about throughput more than report volume, anyone who's allergic to subscriptions and wants a tool that just gets out of the way.
Silverstack Lab: The DIT Standard
Silverstack (from Pomfort) is the broadcast standard. If you've ever worked on a network commercial or feature where there's a dedicated DIT, you've watched them run Silverstack.
The reason is reporting. Silverstack generates the kind of QC documentation that production wants on file: per-card hash reports, full clip metadata, optional in-line thumbnail review, ALE/CSV/PDF exports, and (if you're in the right tier) on-set color management with CDLs and LUTs. The Lab tier is what most DITs use, and it's a SaaS subscription at around $24/month.
For doc shoots and commercials with insurance and union requirements, the paper trail Silverstack produces is non-negotiable. You can't show up to a network with a Hedge MHL and expect it to clear delivery requirements.
The downside is the learning curve and the monthly bill. If you're not actively earning DIT day rates, the cost is hard to justify.
Best for: working DITs, broadcast and feature production, doc shoots with metadata requirements, anyone whose deliverable includes the offload report itself.
ShotPut Pro: The Quiet US Commercial Default
ShotPut Pro (from Imagine Products) has been around the longest. It's still the default at most US commercial production companies, partly because of inertia and partly because its conservative defaults have prevented a lot of disasters over the years.
The reporting is solid: PDF reports, MHL, CSV summaries, and on-set proxy generation if you want it. Speed-wise, ShotPut is slightly slower than Hedge on parallel multi-card jobs but faster than nothing.
The pricing model is the friendliest: $129 one-time. No subscription. Updates are paid major-version upgrades every couple of years, which is fine.
Best for: US commercial shoots where the production company has a ShotPut workflow already, anyone who hates subscriptions and wants a one-time purchase, productions where the report format needs to match what the post house is expecting.
Which One by Workflow
The honest cheat sheet:
Solo videographer with one or two cards per shoot. Hedge. The speed and simplicity wins, and the lifetime license amortizes fast.
Documentary shoot with a small DIT cart. Silverstack Lab. The reports and metadata handling are worth the subscription if you're shooting for delivery to a network or streamer.
Network commercial with established workflow. ShotPut Pro, because everyone downstream is expecting ShotPut reports and you don't want to be the person who introduces a tool change mid-production.
Camera assistant on indie features. Hedge. The day rates don't usually justify a Silverstack subscription, and the throughput on multi-card days adds up.
Wedding shooter with two camera bodies. Hedge or ShotPut. Either works. Hedge if you want subscription-free at a slightly higher cost; ShotPut if you want the lowest one-time bill.
The Part That Comes After Offload
Verified offload is the first half of media management. The second half is what happens once that footage is sitting on your edit drive.
Most editors do a great job protecting the offload step and then spend zero effort on the post-edit cleanup. The result is drives full of source from old projects, with no easy way to tell what's been used in a sequence and what was just imported and forgotten.
This is the half Clip Sweeper covers. Once your offloaded media is in a Premiere project, it can tell you exactly which clips touched a timeline and which never made the cut. Pair it with verified offload on the front end and you have a media workflow that protects every byte from the card to the final delivery, without paying to store the takes that didn't make it.
The calculator is also useful if you're sizing storage for a multi-card workflow and trying to figure out how much real space you'll need per shoot day.
Pick your offload tool by what your downstream needs. The verification matters more than the brand.